Councillors could soon approve a motion that would require medical marijuana growers seeking to set up shop in Mississauga to get approval from the city beforehand. Right now, growers only need approval from Health Canada, leaving municipalities in the dark about where marijuana is being grown inside their borders.

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“Since the government of Canada saw fit to allow this to happen, we thought right away that we should do something to protect the public and make sure we know what’s going on,” said Ron Starr, the councillor for ward six in Mississauga.

“We better put a bylaw into place so that we know where they are.”

There are currently two medical marijuana growers operating in Mississauga, but some councillors expect that number to increase. The motion, if passed by city council, would allow city bureaucrats to decide where the operation can operate.

Starr said he doesn’t want them operating near schools or playgrounds although the two currently operating haven’t generated any complaints to the city.

Jim Tovey, Mississauga’s councillor for ward one, said municipal regulation would allow an extra layer of oversight to make sure the operation is meeting all guidelines. He also suggested city bylaw officers would be able to get to the facility faster if there was an emergency.

“It may appear as though it’s another level of bureaucracy in one sense, and it probably is in one sense, but I think at the end of the day, we have a very robust system of bylaw enforcement which I think would probably really complement anything the federal government is doing.”

Federal regulations governing medical marijuana operations don’t disperse the information widely. No one can know about them, including police officers. Const. Andy Pattenden with York Regional Police said they can only find out about the operations after starting an investigation and calling Health Canada to find out if it’s a legal grow-op.

“Right now, we don’t know where they are until we initiate an investigation. So yeah, any information that could be provided would be a benefit, for sure,” he said.